Depression hits without warning or clear reason

Thursday

Oct 7, 1993 at 12:01 AM

A Spartanburg advertising executive, nearing 40, sits in her beautiful downtown office and talks about the European vacation of a lifetime - and cries. The normally bubbly, always-on-the-go woman has dreamed about this trip with her handsome husband for years. Now she doesn't want to go. She doesn't have a reason for her feelings. But she does have some of the classic symptoms of depression. The National Institute of Mental Health estimates that 15 million Americans experience depression each year. Only one in four gets help. The rest watch their health, careers, relationships and families deteriorate. And some kill themselves. Today, National Depression Screening Day, screenings are being offered by the Women's Resource Center at Mary Black Westside Medical Park and Charter Hospital of Greenville. Outwardly, this young executive doesn't appear depressed and that's how she wants to keep it. That's why she talked with the Herald-Journal only on condition her name not be used. She's not ashamed - she just thinks it might make some of her clients uncomfortable. The young woman was already being treated for asthma. But one hot morning last month she became aware something else was wrong. "It's not uncommon for my day to start at 4 a.m. By 8 a.m. that Monday, I'd bought a week's worth of groceries, took the kids to school, gotten to work and gone out for a walk to think. If you'd have asked, I'd have said I had the world by the tail," she says, looking at the tennis shoes she has stowed behind a chair in her office for her walks. "But I'd been having shortness of breath. All of a sudden, there was not any breath and a lot of chest pain. It was not shortness of breath. It was no breath." She made her way to an elementary school and collapsed. Someone from the office ran over with her inhaler. Doctors later told her it was a panic attack that started with an asthma attack. When the doctor then told her the panic attack was a sign of depression, she recalls, "I didn't realize I was depressed. I thought all people were miserable."Here's a quote to pull out Looking back, she can pick out other symptoms. "When you become depressed, you don't sleep well. It's called `early waking syndrome.' Something you normally enjoy, you don't enjoy now. Things that I lived for, I don't enjoy any more. The only thing enjoyable is sleep."a subhead here?

Taking stock The first step in dealing with depression is recognizing it and seeking help. The young advertising executive is glad she sought help before she needed hospitalization. "There aren't any quick fixes," she laments. "The very thing you take a lot of pride in could be your downfall." She and her doctors haven't found the root of her depression. It could be stress from a divorce a decade ago. It could be the stress of sharing custody of a child, her age or the fact that she describes herself as a "perfectionist." She made a career change she didn't want a few years ago, which could also be a factor. "I had to choose my family. It's not what I wanted to do, but it's what I had to do. Men get to make decisions based on what's best for them or their careers, but I had to do what was best for them. "There's this one person and everybody's taking pieces of her.Another good quote. My weekends are spent trying to blend quality time with my children with catching up on what I didn't get done through the week. The relationship with my husband suffers immensely."How about a subhead here?

A hidden terror Depression can't always be seen, Dr. J. Christopher Caston, a Spartanburg psychiatrist, says. "Some people who appear depressed may just be having a bad day." Caston says blood tests can screen for some types of depression. "The tests don't screen for all the disorders that exist, but we used to not have any (blood) tests." Other types may be inherited or caused by another illness, such as a thyroid condition. Today, mental health professionals at 1,300 hospitals, churches, shopping malls and medical offices will talk about how to recognize depression, hand out booklets and administer questionnaires anonymously to find signs of depression. A screening at the Woman's Resource Center at Mary Black Westside Medical Park, 2995 Reidville Road, is sponsored by the Mental Health Association, the Mental Health Center, Doctors Memorial Hospital, Spartanburg Regional Medical Center and Mary Black Memorial Hospital. Each person who goes to a screening will be interviewed individually, and those who need help will, if they wish, be referred for evaluation, medication, therapy or perhaps all three, explains Dianne Jacobs, lifestyle management consultant at the Women's Resource Center. The center will not administer blood tests, she says. Appointments are available from 8:30-10 a.m., 1-3 p.m. and 5-7 p.m. today. Call 587-3020. Appointments are not required, Jacobs says, but they will help them know when to have counselors available. In the Greer area, Charter Hospital of Greenville will be offering screenings by appointment only from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Call 1-800-866-HOPE. Charter is at 2700 E. Phillips Road, Greenville.

BOXES:

Are you depressed?]

You often feel sad, anxious or empty You feel hopeless You often feel guilty, worthless or helpless You no longer care about activities you once enjoyed, including sex You can't sleep, you wake too early or you oversleep You lose your appetite, or you overeat You lose energy, feel tired or "slowed down" You keep thinking of death or suicide, or you try to kill yourself You feel restless and irritable You can't concentrate, remember or make decisions You have headaches, stomach problems, chronic pain or other medical symptoms that don't get better after treatment

If you agree with five or more of these statements so much that you can't function and your feelings persist for two weeks or more, see a doctor.

Source: National Institute of Mental Health

Depression is: An illness involving physical symptoms, moods and thoughts Not a sign of personal weakness Can't just be "willed away." Without help, people can stay depressed for months or years. Source: American Psychiatric Association and NIMH